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Congratulations to Kiwisaver's 500,000th member, baby Remy Van Cruysen, whose parents, Jules and Megan, signed him up today. By the time Remy is an adult he will have a nest-egg worth $49,000 in today's money. Kiwisaver has been enormously popular. People have signed up at twice the…
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The weekend marked the centenary of the Blackball miners' strike. TV3 reported that: "Politicians flocked to Labour's spiritual home on the West Coast to celebrate the centenary of a miners' strike which helped build the country's Labour movement into a political force."
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Lest you think we are totally urban focused one of our readers sent us this recent editorial in the Rural News. In it they offer some positive comments around the recent R&D announcement from the government and ponder on National's inability to offer up any…
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Vote for your favourite M&M candydate here (warning, extensive Flash content).
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David Farrar appears to be throwing his weight in behind National Party's "New Zealand Sucks" campaign with another misleading post on migration to Australia. Titled "The exodus grows", DPF's take on the most recent stats is that the rate at which people are "fleeing New…
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The Sunday-Star Times has an interesting list of the policies the election will be fought on and where the two major parties stand on them. Here's the article in summary, see if you can spot the pattern: KiwiSaver Labour: Set up KiwiSaver, added government and employer contributions. Half a…
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Regular readers will remember that one of John Key's excuses for he 'we would love to see wages drop' quote was that the reporter had misquoted him. Now, Key has once again shown a disturbing trait of attributing his own mistakes to others. When asked…
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Some commentators have been drawing parallels between John Key and Barack Obama's style of appeal. That was all very well when it appeared to be going Obama's way but now in this recent article in the Guardian suggests that Barack Obama is also facing challenging…
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Steve posted a stick-figure explanation of the sub-prime mortgage crisis earlier in the week. Here are ABC commedians Clarke and Dawe giving their take:
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Two days ago we ran a piece called 'If I were ACT's campaign strategist' which suggested 'ACT needs to lay claim to the true right, without going so extreme that National has to disown them, by articulating a series of classic right-wing policies including: tax…
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NZers' wallets will bulge under Act, says Roger Douglas. Sure they will Roger - with the bills from our kids' user-pays schools, our privatised hospital fees, water charges, private accident insurance premiums and, if your party gets half a chance, the privatised oxygen from the…
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It is five years since the US and allies invaded Iraq, and the war is far from over. Every day, there is fighting and people continue to die. Four million Iraqi children have lived their whole lives during war. World-famous economist Joseph Sitglitz estimates the…
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For harmonious holiday gatherings of family and friends it's sometimes said that the topics of religion and politics are best avoided. At least one among us has nothing to worry about however. As with his politics, it turns out that when Slippery John talks religion…
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Hat tip: Chris S in the comments.
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One of the most interesting questions from the audience at the Stiglitz interview in Wellington last week was whether he thought we were focusing unduly on "economic growth" as the sole indicator of societal wellbeing. The point being that, as in the headline, it's easy…
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With Barack Obama doing so well in the Democrat primaries and being seen as the candidate of change, National wants to paint John Key as the kiwi Obama. And some in the media have lapped it up pointing to such amazing similarities as: 'they were…
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We'd assumed it was all the dancing but perhaps there's another explanation. Stuff reports that: ACT on Campus - the youth branch of the party - apparently sold BZP party pills last month for $1 each to Auckland University students as an inducement to get…
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As part of its ‘New Zealand sucks' campaign, National is on its high horse over an international survey that shows New Zealand's crime victimisation rate is one of the higher ones in a group of 30 developed countries. Comparing crime levels across countries is bloody…
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I am intrigued by the recent coverage of the state of the economy. We have reports that things will get bumpy from some economists, with others saying dire predictions are "premature grandstanding". Cullen doesn't appear too worried, saying the economy's in better shape than most…
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What strategy should the parties pursue ahead of the election? This series of posts will attempt to answer that question, party by party, starting with ACT. ACT must gain support from hard-right voters who are dissatisfied with John Key's wishy-washy centrism. They've made a good start of it…
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The sub-prime crisis is at the heart of the world's current economic problems. It all boils down to financiers playing fast and loose with the rules of how money works, and the US government not keeping an eye on them. Essentially, they created a whole…
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You do have to wonder sometimes what it takes to get a straight answer out of a National party MP. Having recently given Brian Connell a bollocking for being evasive on camera, Bill English has now pulled out a performance of his own. He was…
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Has the prospect of a Kiwi winter made you think longingly of a move across the ditch? Well if Sydney was your destination you may want to think twice. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald points out that: "The latest Herald/Nielsen poll found…
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Meet Guest post. Guest post is 32 years old, he likes long walks on the beach and lively political debate. He is our new vehicle for experts on interesting and relevant topics to contribute posts to The Standard. Our first guest is Simon Tegg, who…
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Check out this groovy little gadget. You put your money in the slot and it gets counted, with the power of ‘digital'! Maybe we could all chip in and get one for the IRD. Seriously though, quite a cock-up on the IRD's behalf, using the…
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After reading Steve's piece about suicide prevention and the subsequent comments I've decided a short history lesson on this issue is needed. In the late eighties and early nineties the mental health model was shifted from an institutional model to the 'recovery model'. Effectively this…
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This week's NBR editorial, titled "Smarten up, John Key", frets that Key keeps showing himself to be a slippery, policy lightweight (can't have people seeing that side of him until the election is safely won). They have three recommendations for how Key can smarten up:…
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The recent scandal over Air New Zealand underpaying its Chinese workers to the tune of four times less than their New Zealand counterparts comes as no surprise given the sick management culture at our national carrier, and highlights some serious contradictions in the airline's ownership…